Tobacco or other herbs are typically smoked by burning and inhaling the smoke. The smoke may be harmful to the smoker's health and may also affect those around the smoker. In response to these issues, many cities, states and the federal government have passed laws or created ordinances or rules that prohibit smoking in public places.
Vaporization may provide many benefits over traditional smoking. However, few smokers may vaporize because vaporization may be difficult to perform with the present vaporizers on the market. Conventional vaporizers may be inconvenient and/or expensive, and may require an electric or other power supply, time to wait for the device to heat, be relatively large in size, have many parts, be cumbersome to use and may need to be cleaned.
Vaporization could possibly be attempted using only a lighter. When a lighter is lit, even though the flame may be only ¼ inch to ½ inch tall, it can produce a hot air flow above the flame capable of vaporizing smoking material. However, the hot air flow can rapidly rise vertically and move with ambient air, making it difficult to locate the right position to inhale the right temperature hot air flow to vaporize smoking material.